Beaty previews Iowa State game at weekly press conference

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas football head coach David Beaty spoke to the media and answered questions at his weekly press conference, discussing the Jayhawks’ upcoming game in Ames, Iowa against Iowa State.

A video of the press conference can be seen on the Kansas Football Facebook Page and a transcript is below.

 

DAVID BEATY: Okay. Start this thing off. Obviously not satisfied as coaches, players, or as a program with the way that game ended up last week. But the right thing to do right now is to get our mentality right, go make the corrections necessary that we see on video, move forward, because we’re about to move forward into a new opponent, Iowa State, we’re going to be playing them at home, which is always a good atmosphere, and our guys are excited about that. We’re ready to move forward into that game. Coach Campbell’s got them playing well, he took his team down there to Norman and they were down a couple times in that game by double digits and were able to bring themselves back and win the game. Very disciplined ball club. Couple of the things that they did, they just stayed the course and did a really nice job of being disciplined and they wound up winning the game. He’s done a really nice job there with that team. We have got a couple of guys that just to update you on, I know I talked to y’all a little bit about Hasan (Defense) the other day, he is still not completely cleared from that. We’re hoping to maybe get some good news today or tomorrow with him which would be great. Khalil (Herbert) we’ll see how he goes, it will be kind of a game time decision. I think that’s it. Let’s take some questions.

Q. Is Dom (Williams) available if Khalil is not?
DAVID BEATY: Well, he was not completely healthy last week. I tried to use him a little bit on some special teams stuff late in the game. But he’s getting close, we think he’s going to be to be okay to go this week. We certainly need him to. That would be nice. We feed to get him back in there and get the balls ball in his hands a little bit. So hopefully he’s well and I think he is.

Q. How did you feel like Jacob Bragg did playing fullback?
DAVID BEATY: He did well. There was a couple things that it took a couple plays to get used to just foot work and operating in that kind of space when you’re not used to operating in that kind of space, but for the most part he figured it out. You watch the game go on and you watch his departure angles and his pad level and his ability to play from low to high it really improved. I think he had a good time doing it, I know it was something that really helped us through the out that game.

Q. How did the decision to come about to use him in that capacity?
DAVID BEATY: Well, really (Doug Meacham) Meach and Coach (Zach) Yenser, just some of the things that we were doing in the run game, needing a little bit bigger body in there and being able to maybe take a little bit off Ben (Johnson), maybe take a couple of snaps off of him at times to do that, which is good, and maybe needing a little bigger body than Caperton Humphrey might have who does play a good role for us. And Hudson Hall, trying to get him completely back available, he’s not completely there yet. So as soon as we get him back it will help us be a little bit more deep in that position.

Q. After the fact do you guys feel like you maybe could have used Khalil a little bit more early in the first half? He didn’t seem to be featured too heavily.
DAVID BEATY: We were actually happy with our game plan, we just didn’t seem to finish very well early in that game. Our game plan always involves trying to get the run game going, and I thought we gave it some opportunities early, but looking back on it, that wasn’t the difference in that game, it wasn’t the difference in the game.

Q. Stanley played the entire second half, who is in at quarterback, is that the head coach’s decision or the offensive coordinator?
DAVID BEATY: Ultimate decision’s always going to lie on me, but I certainly consult with Meach and Garrett Riley all the time on that. It’s always, usually it’s a group decision when we make those decisions and we never have not been on the same page. So that’s good to know. Those guys both got to play the other day, the plan was to get them both in there and it worked out good. Carter happened to be in there in a situation where we were able it get him more snaps there towards the end and it was good to get a good sample of him on the field for sure.

Q. The depth chart has Bender first and there’s no or in there, but you did not say who would be starting, is that accurate?
DAVID BEATY: I don’t know that we changed our offensive depth chart, it was basically what I think it was from last week, whoever started, if I’m not mistaken. I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. But I think maybe the best way for me to handle that, guys, is our guys and our team and our coaches all know when our plan’s going to be at every position, including quarterback. We know what we’re going to do already. I’m not going to share it publicly, obviously, because it gives us a little bit of an advantage. Our team, our kids, they all understand the plan, we’re excited about the plan moving forward. We always have a competition at any and all positions. I know it’s vogue to talk about the quarterback position and it have its own separate entity and all that stuff, but it just isn’t that way for us. We don’t look at it that way. We look at it always competing to try to make each of us better. And those guys, they’re roommates, their buddies, they’re friends and they’re both competitive. So we know what our plan is, I’m just not going to share it with you. Sorry.

Q. What are each quarterbacks characteristics that define them?
DAVID BEATY: I think it’s probably a little bit obvious in terms of who has a little bit better running ability. I’m not sure that Peyton (Bender) couldn’t run it a little bit better if he gets to a point where he makes his mind up to do it, but Carter (Stanley) obviously moves a little bit better. He’s probably a little bit better on the run with the ball and on the run throwing the ball he probably feels a little bit more comfortable even than Peyton does.

Q. As a quarterback that shows the accuracy deep, but struggles sometimes in short and intermediate throws like Peyton has this year what is usually the key thing?
DAVID BEATY: Well, quarterback play is a number of different things, it doesn’t simply just fall on that QB, it falls on protection. There was a few balls that were tipped the other day, we got to be able to get those hands down, make sure we’re timing cuts correctly and we’re getting hands in chests when they’re jumping and things like that. That will help. Obviously pocket awareness and being able to move around to get a great arm angle is something that I think will help a lot. And then just you got to be on the right guy. And that’s something that happens throughout the country, that’s not unique to us. Most of the game we’re on the right guy. But when you’re not on the right guy you’re having to kind of shove it there a little bit into places that are maybe are a little tighter than others. Some guys get away with that. We had Johnny and Johnny could get away with that all the time, I mean he knew who he was throwing to when the ball got snapped, but he was special, he was special. We would have a guy sitting wide open and there was no way he was going the ball because he was only five yards down the field. Just wasn’t happening. It was those two deep routes that were going to get it. So, but we don’t teach them that way, we obviously go through our progression and we have actually done decently at our intermediate game. I think we have got to be better at the deep ball game is where I think we need to be better and we’re working to make sure that we solve that proper amount of air, all the things that go along with that.

Q. A good problem to have where you have two guys who are both equal starting for you, gives you depth at position and maybe create questions for the opposing team.
DAVID BEATY: We have said it all year that we feel like we’re fairly fortunate in that regard that we do have very capable guys to do it. We got two guys that actually have experience now, which is good. So, yeah, I think it does. It really hasn’t changed though. It’s not like this is something new. We don’t have a controversy here. We have a competition. It’s just the way it goes.

Q. How unique is it, you have a kid in Lanning who’s been four years at quarterback and now he’s excelling at linebacker?
DAVID BEATY: I’m sick of Lanning, I want him to graduate. He is a talented guy, man, he really is. And watching him go over there and play linebacker and average, what, 10 tackles a game, something like that. I think he’s averaging 10 tackles a game. He is a, he’s one of them kids that I never even really got to talk to him much, I met him at Big-12 Media Days, but you can just tell that guy’s a special dude. For him to be able to come back over there and be able to not miss a beat and he looks like a linebacker when he’s on the linebacker side of the ball and then he gets back in the back field and he looks like a quarterback. And you’re like, man, those are two different dresses, you’re not supposed to look the same. But he does a good job, that’s a good kid to have, really is. I know Matt and those guys feel very fortunate to have him. He’s got a bunch of accolades this week and he certainly deserves them. Tough guy, man, moved from quarterback over to linebacker and be that kind of guy, that’s impressive.

Q. How have you seen Coach Bowen handle some of the adversity he’s had this year and what’s your faith level in him because of that?
DAVID BEATY: Well my faith level is as high as it’s ever been. I think he’s one of the finest around, he really is. He’s handled it the exact same way I’ve always seen him handle things. He gets out every day and he out works everyone. It matters to him. It matters to him. This university matters to him. This team matters to him. And the production of his unit absolutely matters to him. All you want is a guy in there that has had experience doing it and he’s been able to do it, we have all seen it, all of us in this room have seen it, and what we have got to do is got to be able to grow those young-un’s up a little bit faster and as upset as we were about the result the other day, there were some things that we look at that we’re getting better in a couple of areas. Back there we covered a lot better, it helped us in protection or in getting to the quarterback, I thought the pass rush was certainly helped us in coverage a couple times. It’s a work in progress and we’re getting better day by day. A lot of that is attributed to him. His leadership and his consistency, our guys love Clint Bowen, they love him. They would go to the wall for him and watching this team come in here on Sunday was impressive. They’re an impressive bunch of men. They really are. They come in here and they are ready to go. They’re locked in, they have kind of a bunker mentality, and just selfless guys. I mean not a single one of them even remotely close to late and hanging on every word. So they care and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than right here with those guys.

Q. What was the biggest issue for the defense against Tech in particular how did things change?
DAVID BEATY: Trying to sit here and think about the production. You have to look at the production they had in the rushing game. With Tech, you’re going to pick your poison a little bit. You got to decide whether you’re going to be heavy loaded in the box and let them throw it all over you or are you going to be little bit heavy in the back end and let them try to run the football and then rally to it. And really they ran the ball pretty well, the good news is we look at the tape, and it’s not the same guy, it’s one guy here, it’s one guy there. The long touchdown run on that second series was completely preventable. We need a guy to come underneath to the B gap, every gaps cancel, the guy’s down and we’re probably off the field. Probably off the field. And that kid played pretty good on every other snap. He just made a mistake on that one, right? But we can’t have that. We can’t have it happen. Because the ball finds you there and it tends to happen a little bit with a different guy here and there, so our challenge is to continue to close that margin of error with all those guys, because really the production that they had really came with margin of error on our own. Poor angle, maybe leaving a zone at times, which I mean Tyrone (Miller) eft the zone one time and it turned into a touchdown. So we just got to be more disciplined and, like I said, we’re getting better in that regard. Like I said, under three minutes left to go, under four minutes left to go in the third quarter that game the other day we had us a football game. It was 35-19, should have been 20 and we had just taken the ball back. And it was going to be our third straight series to be able to possibly go put points on the board and they hadn’t scored one yet. So the momentum had certainly turned. That next play that happened where they took the ball away from Chase (Harrell), which that was just such a tough call right there, because it could have been incomplete, it could have been a fumble, it was just bang, bang. But I thought they ruled right after I looked at it on tape and we got to be able to get the ball down so he doesn’t have to keep that ball up like that and that would have prevented that. But even then we have to be able to rally from that because we went right back down to the 21 yard line and we had a ball tipped and it got picked. So we were, we had a chance pretty quickly there, I want to say it was 55 seconds or something like that, don’t quote me on that but we were right back on the 21. So we certainly had our opportunities there and then it kind of slipped away from us from there.

Q. What were the pros and cons you saw out of Carter in his first extended stint?
DAVID BEATY: I think maybe the best way for me to talk about those quarterbacks is I thought their performances were pretty similar, they were very similar. In terms of production, that was probably the best way for me to say it. It was good to see him three the deep ball decently. I know he would have loved to have got that thing a little bit deeper to Sims on that sideline, we might have been able to score on that one, but there was some things that he knows he can do better and I know he’ll be ready to do that this week.

Q. Who would you attribute to the increase in productivity in the pass rush against Tech from the previous games?
DAVID BEATY: Well a lot of it has to do with Clint Bowen. Clint Bowen made some adjustments defensively and he did some things that I thought were things that we needed to do and he was right. We needed to do them at the right time. It’s hard to make changes on certain things with no time to do it but two days to prepare. We did it over the bye week and it definitely helped us in the passing game. It definitely helped us. He really called a nice game. There was a few of those big runs were simply guys that didn’t get to the gap when they needed to get to the gap. There were very few of them where we were just outmanned when we got there, it was just we didn’t get to the proper gap and you got to go cut that gap off. But like I said, the back end, I thought we played a lot better. And that helps that pass rush, it really does. He got outside of us — remember I said the other day, that guy scrambles a lot better than you would like him to. And I thought our guys did a pretty nice job of keeping him in that pocket most of the day. He got out one time and we had a touchdown go over our heads, but we could have prevented that one as well. So I thought the back end it got a little bit better last week. And we got to continue to show vast improvement there because this guy can throw the ball as well. He threw for 323 yards the other day. A lot weren’t a long ways down the field, they ran with the ball well.

Q. You mentioned at the very beginning that you’re not satisfied obviously with how things went on Saturday. Is it a tough couple days you guys have had, viewing the margin, time to prepare entering that game and not getting the result?
DAVID BEATY: These times are, the way that we have started the season in terms of our production is not, that’s not okay at all. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we knew we had to go earn it. And we haven’t earned it throughout the first four games and up. And that means you got to execute at a high level. I said that on many occasions. However, we have a team full of warriors in here and we got a staff full of warriors and guys that have the, that share the same mentality as I do. We are fighters. We are going to get things fixed and we’re not going to let things be as heavy as they seem, we’re going to make them as heavy as they should be. It was one game. We got to learn from that game. We’re not going to put the whole season on us right now, we’re going to put that game on us and try to learn from that one, just like we did the last one, and we’re going to move forward from there. And our kids, those are the ones, those are the warriors, those dudes are inspiring to me because you walk in here and you’re like, okay, it’s a good group, man, they’re ready to go. They’re upset, but they’re ready to go. They’re locked in. Because we see — the thing I think that keeps us going and our coaches going at such a high level is that we see what we’re capable of. And, truth be known, I think a lot of you do too. But we also see how many mistakes that we make on our own that lead sometimes to some problems for us. If we can get those things cleared up, I wouldn’t want to play us, I tell you that. So we’re going to especially can rolling. We’re going to try to make it tough on you to play us.

Q. They use both quarterbacks, how much does it help prepare for that in that Kansas has multiple quarterbacks who can do things?
DAVID BEATY: Very similar. I mean very similar. Joel’s probably a more of a runner, but he can throw it. He’s got a lot of a pass attempts in the Big-12 so he’s got some experience doing it and he will hurt you with his arm. Obviously he’s playing defense, too, so how many reps he can get at it you would think that a call level, that sheet might be a little bit smaller, but you can tell he’s a smart guy. I think they can call any play and he would remember it. So I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. The Park guy, I don’t know that he’s not going to be back. That guy’s talented now, he’s talented. And then the Kemp kid is a senior, I think he’s a walk on guy. And, man, you’re talking about a guy that just, he didn’t put the ball in jeopardy and that’s what you ask for a quarterback. Don’t put it in jeopardy and just move the team. He did. He made the right reads, he got the ball out to the little fire screens and spit screens quite a bit that paid big dividends for them and I thought they blocked really well on the perimeter. That helped them.

Q. What maybe impressed you most about what Iowa State was able to do down in Norman?
DAVID BEATY: Well Tom asked me that question the other day, was I surprised by that and I’m really not because Matt (Campbell) is a really good football coach. He took over a program that actually they had done a good job recruiting there. They had brought in some pretty good players. He’s utilizing quite a bit of them really, really well. Cotton-Moya, Lanning, and all those guys were there, Montgomery, and he’s done a nice job of making that team his own. I think that the thing that impresses me the most about them is that they were down twice by double digits, one time 17-3, one time 24-10, and they just kept fighting. They kept playing, the defense just kept fighting and trying to find a way to stop Baker Mayfield who is a very talented guy, that’s, that was a fun game to watch on tape, because he is so talented. But they just kept playing. They just kept making him snap it again. That was impressive. Impressive.

Q. Do you have an update on Neal?
DAVID BEATY: I don’t. I don’t have an update on Neal yet.

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